Despite some ups and downs throughout the year, Atlanta Braves southpaw ace Max Fried overall put together another stellar regular season in 2024. In 29 starts, he finished the year with a 3.25 ERA and 1.164 WHIP. And really, he’s been that or better for his entire career with only two seasons since his debut in 2017 with an ERA over 3.30 and only one over 4.00 (a 4.02) in 2019. The playoffs, however, have been another story.
That was certainly on the mind of every Braves fan on Wednesday night as Fried took the mound for Game 2 against the San Diego Padres in the NL Wild Card series after losing on Tuesday night and facing elimination in the best-of-three slate.
And unfortunately, the narrative about Fried in the postseason didn’t dramatically change in the do-or-die situation for Atlanta…